posted 11-11-201309:35 PM
Hi, I just want to know of anyone's experience changing their name on Facebook.

I have been thinking about changing my name to something more gender neutral for a while. I have discussed it with my sister, my mum and one friend (who was kind of dismissive of the issue). I can't seem to be able to bring myself to tell people in person. I don't have many friends but the ones I do seem to brush over it or move on when I try and discuss my non-conformity to the gender binary.

I am much better at written communication over verbal and I thought that I'd be able to succinctly articulate myself on Facebook as to why I'm changing my name. I don't think anyone I know has any experience with another trans person so they don't get that this isn't related to my sexuality. But I was thinking about how nothing is official until it's Facebook official. So if I change it on Facebook maybe people will take it seriously.

So I don't want advice on what I should or shouldn't do rather I want to know other people's experience of changing their name on such a public arena.

RedskiesMember # 79774

posted 11-12-201305:57 AM
ck289, just checking: are you interested in hearing about people's experiences with changing their name for any other reason, or only for gender- or gender transition- related reasons?

wildcatMember # 104627

posted 11-12-201310:41 AM
Hi ck289,I do not have any experiences with changing my name, but if you want to change what pronouns facebook uses when referring to you to "they", there is a really cool hack I found: http://m0tei.co.uk/facebookgender/. However, I did not write the hack, so I do not know how safe it is to use. I have used it, have had no problems with it, and it works None of my friends asked about it, but many of my friends are feminists, lesbians or otherwise trans-accepting, so I do not know if this helps.

ck289Member # 108365

posted 11-12-201304:37 PM
I suppose any experience. Mostly about 'friends' reactions. I don't have a whole lot of Facebook friends and I don't particularly care about losing some over the issue, but I just kind of want to go in with an idea of how people might react, online and in real life.

MoliasMember # 101745

posted 11-12-201304:48 PM
I changed my name long before I had facebook, but I've had some friends go through the process. In the instances I can think of, when they made the change they also posted something short that said something like "some of you know this already, but for the rest of you, I'm now going by [name]; please call me that from now on." One friend addressed pronoun changes and his gender identity in that post as well, others just left it with the name.

The reactions that I saw to these friends were pretty positive; some people had known already and anyone who was surprised didn't leave negative comments (at least that I saw). I don't think there's any way to know how any individual would respond to something like this, though, and if they'd take you more seriously for posting on Facebook vs. having personal conversations; that's the sort of thing that's really specific to individuals, I think.

posted 02-08-201412:33 AM
I came out last year as transgender, and needed to create a new Facebook due to maxing out my name changes on it. I made the new one with a gender neutral name (Kaito) and recently, I found the gender neutral hack, and I used it. So far, no problems. Most of my friends didn't care, a few asked me via pm, and only one didn't like the fact that I am trans. It went rather well for me.

zeitvogelMember # 109023

posted 02-15-201412:36 PM
Facebook now gives many gender options and lets you configure which pronouns you want used (out of 'he', 'she', and 'they') This changed only this week I think.

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